Contrabass Digest

2001-02-26

From: "Jay Easton"
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 16:49:41 -0800
Subject: [CB] Sad news

To all the classical saxophonists on list,
I have just received word that legendary saxophone pioneer (and contrabass
saxophonist) Sigurd M. Raschèr (1907-2001) passed away this morning.
Say a prayer for the great man- he gave us a lot.

Jay Easton

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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 02:25:49 -0800
From: bitwise
Subject: [CB] Contra-alto saga (good news)

Tried a Vandoren #3 reed ($10 ea. - yikes!) on my 1440 contra.
Better than before, but still difficult to sound. After getting an
on-line education on clarinet mouthpieces from several different
sites, I took a straightedge to my GMB #3 mouthpiece.
Discovered some asymmetries that should not have been there.
A few strokes of a file took care of that.

Clarinet now speaks easily from low Eb to high F (concert G#4).
It will likely go higher, but I don't know the fingerings yet.
Some notes are a little chirpy, but practice should take care of
that (prior to getting this horn last November, the last time I
played a contra-alto was for about five minutes 25 or so years
ago). The overall tone isn't as 'clarinetty' as I would like, so a
different mouthpiece is still indicated, but the existing unit is now
much easier to get along with.

Thanks again to all for your information and support. I can now
devote more attention to my construction project. Does anyone
know of plastic pipe with thicker walls than schedule 80 PVC?
I'm thinking a C extension for my 1440 would be a good way to
get started, so the i.d. and o.d. have to be a fairly close match to
what is already there.

By the way, the 'pedal clarinet' I saw on ebay appears on closer
inspection to be a contrabass of more conventional construction.
But it does have an unusually long crook, and a very large bell, so
there is a relation there, I think.

Craig

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From: "Ulrich Drechsler"
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 13:27:39 +0100
Subject: [CB] my new CD

Hi,
our new Double-CD is now available.
It contains a complete new arrangment of Franz Schubert's famous cycle of
songs "Die Winterreise" for a jazzquartet with bassclarinet (that's me),
piano, doublebass and drums. We used musical styles like
Trip-Hop,Latin,Bebop,Free Playing, Avantgarde, Drum'n'Bass etc. for
re-arranging the 24 songs of the original.
You can listen to a few soundfiles on our group's homepage (sorry it's only
in german languade) and can order online if you're interested.

www.poesis.at

Thank you.

Ulrich Drechsler
Vienna/Austria

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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 15:25:37 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] I'm back...
 

Just returned from a week (almost) in Hawaii. I'm still peeling...
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate a contrabass ukelele...  We
did see a number of whales, but didn't hear any singing.  Still, a
good trip altogether... ;-)

Grant

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green
ecode:contrabass       http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***End of Contrabass Digest***

 
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